Colorado Admits There Is Little To Speed Up Driver’s Licenses For Illegal Immigrants

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DENVER (CBS4)- Frustrations are growing over a new program that gives driver’s licenses to people who are in the country illegally. The process has been extremely slow and the state admits there is little it can do to speed things up.

Part of the issue is that there are only certain DMV offices where those licenses can be processed.

(credit: CBS)

Protesters from “Driver’s License for All Committee” gathered outside the main DMV offices on Wednesday, asking for licenses for undocumented and temporary residents offered at every DMV location.

“We got 30,000 signatures, they started listening to us, the governor signed that law,” said one protester.

They claim the program isn’t large enough to handle all the demand.

A total of 1,159 licenses have been issued and nearly the same amount denied. Hundreds of appointments have been lost because those who signed up failed to attend.

Only five DMV offices in the state can issue the new licenses. There is a 90-day wait to get an appointment. The state can only take 155 appointments a day. It could take a year before everyone who wants a license actually gets one.

“We believe the law was implemented inaccurately. It’s really simple, open more offices and make more appointments and we’ll be happy,” said one protester.

The program is required to fund itself which makes the licenses twice as expensive. The Department of Revenue couldn’t predict how much demand there would be to determine how many offices would be needed to issue the licenses.

The state is monitoring the program and said their business model was formed to handle current demand and still make licenses affordable.